rick

Planning (and saving) for a 10 day trip to Germany in 2006 for the World Cup. Obviously, a lot of things can happen by then, but what kind of money should I budget for airfare, hotel, getting between cities, food, etc?<BR><BR>I am not an experience traveler, so any advise would be appreciated.<BR><BR>Thanks

bill

Rick,<BR><BR>You didn't mention where you are flying from or what type of traveller you are. Will it be just you or your family?<BR><BR>Spent 2 weeks in Germany during September and found the following to be an appropriate budget for the trip:<BR><BR>We flew into Frankfurt. The cost for the airfare was about $600. It should be around the same as long as you do some competitive pricing.<BR><BR>We didn't stay in the most expensive hotels, but they were certainly very comfortable. We paid in the range of 75 Euros to 90 Euros for a doubleroom in some of the smaller towns. If you are planning to stay in the bigger cities, plan for double that or possibly more.<BR><BR>As far as beer is concerned, plan on spending between 2 Euro 50 and 3 Euros for a half liter of really good beer. Wine will cost about the same for a glass.<BR><BR>Train passes will cost you anywhere between $150 and $250 per person. (American Dollars). Check the various websites and options<BR><BR>Breakfast is usually included in the price of your room. <BR><BR>Lunch can range from 4 Euros to 7 Euros<BR><BR>Dinner can range from 10 Euros to 15 Euros. (There were plenty of choices on most menus for less than 10 Euros.)<BR><BR>Taxi's will increase the cost of your trip. Taxi's are clean and convenient, but can be expensive. Try figuring out the bus system of each city or walk.<BR><BR>Souvenirs will be a budget buster<BR>Post cards are usually a waste of money. Postage can be a big time budget buster<BR><BR>I believe that you can get by, per person per pay, on a 100 Euro a day budget. If you are really into stretching your budget, then 75 to 90 Euros a day per person will allow you to get a good feel of Germany.<BR><BR>This doesn't include excessive partying, drinking, souvenir shopping, airfare, or the cost of the World Cup tickets.<BR><BR>The exchange rate right now is terrible. In January of last year, a Euro would have costed you about 85 American Cents. Today, the Euro will cost you about $1.08. This has made the trip about 20% more expensive now then it did in January of last year.<BR><BR>No one knows what the exchange rate will be. Keep track of the rate and start contacting various hotels in Germany for more info.<BR><BR>Have fun. We have plans to be in Munich for the World Cup.<BR>

Gar

hi there,<BR>good tip above, just the wine is about 4 to 5 Euro. And lunch will be a little more than told, for it wil be difficult for a stranger to find out the cheap an good places. If Stuttgart is on Your tour, dont hassitate to drop me a line.<BR><BR>have fun<BR>Gar

Alec

From the experience of last two World Cups, in France and Janapn/Korea, I give following observations:<BR>1. At match venues and in the surrounding towns, most hotel accommodation will be block-booked by organisers and sponsors. Individual hotels or groups will not take booking from individuals, but refer all inquiries to organising committee. Price charged is usually way above the normal rate. At the last World Cup, the organisers apparently overestimated the number of visitors and many hotels had their bookings cancelled at the last minute, leaving a glut of empty rooms except for most popular games. I doubt it will happen in Germany, as it's more easily accessible for majority of football fans than the Far East.<BR>2. Biggest problem has been getting hold of match tickets. There was chaos at France 98 when many tour companies who had offered packages either failed to receive their allocation of tickets or in some cases went bust, leaving many who'd travelled to France without tickets. In Japan/Korea, the organisers had decided to sell tickets separately in a complicated system of venue-specific or team-specific packs. Things didn't quite work out as planned, and many fans failed to get the tickets they had applied for or at supposedly sold out games there were many empty seats. No decision has been made about ticket sale for Germany 06.<BR>3. As Germany is used to staging big sporting events, they should be well prepared to cope with the expected number of visitors. In the past, travel, food and so on caused no particular problems except the inevitable congestions around match venues. Prices, except for accommodation, should stay more or less the same as usual. The savvy fans often stay some distance away from cities where matches take place where accoomodation is cheaper and plentiful, and use the excellent public transport or park-and-ride to get to and from matches.<BR>Keep your eyes on the official Germany 2006 website at:<BR>http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/en/06/loc/w/greeting.html

AA

Bill,<BR>That's a great post, if &quot;rick&quot; was going to Germany this year. Unfortunately the WC is not till '06, that's about 3.5 years from now. To compare what you paid last September to what it could be in '06 is not a good idea. Four factors to consider. <BR>1. Value of the dollar to the Euro - no way to predict that far ahead<BR>2. Prices - again now way to predict that far ahead<BR>3. World Cup - historically it has shown that the regular hotel rates are out of the window, transportation is also higher and more difficult.<BR>4. Airfare - we're not even sure what airlines will still be around in '06, let alone predict what the transatlantic prices will be.<BR><BR>Nothing wrong thinking about the World Cup '06, as I'm very interested too, but it's way to early to actually get serious about the costs. And if I had to take a wild guess, I would take Bill's estimation and double everything at best plus add another $1000 for tickets per person, but again that is just a speculative guess.<BR>See you guys in Germany!!!

Howard

I totally agree with AA's overall estimate. It's much too early to accurately predict what costs will be in 2006.<BR>Regardless, some of the earlier estimates on this thread are way too conservative. World Cup Time means World Cup prices!

bill

All of you are probably right. It is difficult to judge what things will cost in 2 1/2 years.<BR><BR>Hopefully the exchange rate will improve. As I siad, last January a Euro costed about 87 cents, today, it'll cost you about $1.07. That's a 20% increase in cost in just one year becasue of the Euro exchange rate.<BR><BR>I do believe that I am on target for airfares and in the neighborhood for hotels. There were plenty of guesthouses and B&amp;B's that we could have stayed for 50 Euros for a doubleroom.<BR><BR>My advice to Rick would be to do plenty of research. Figure pout which venue he will be going to. Not sure how many games he wants to see. The cost of the trip could easily get into the $3,000 to $5,000 range if he is planning on staying in downtown Munich or Berlin. Just the rooms alone in Munich or Berlin will cost him 1,500 Euro. Add food and drink at 100 Euro a day and already he is spending 2,500 Euros.<BR><BR>Rick, get back to all of us. there are so really well informed people that post here regularly.<BR><BR>I'll see you in germany in 2006. Plan on being in Munich for at leats one of the games. Hopefully the Americans will be playing in Munich.<BR><BR>Bill<BR><BR>

AA

One more factor to consider. As great as Japan and Korea did staging the show, it's not a soccer mecca like Europe. There are probably at least 50M die hard fans living within 0-5 hour drive or train trip to Germany, or for that matter the discount airlines that are so prevelant now in Europe. So I predict that match tickets will be hard to come by and the scalpers will have a field day. It's hard to imgagine any of the games having empty seats. Which leads to an obvious conclusion that the ticket prices will be extremely high.<BR>Great threat guys.<BR>Hopefully we'll all make it there.

Aussie603

We are a family of four who would like to attend the World Cup in '06. We don't know the first thing about getting tickets and planning this trip. Are there certain travel agencies in the US that have the sole right to sell tickets, like they do for Wimbledon? Are any tickets held back for sale the day of the match ? I will certainly check out the official website, thanks for that info. Any other help would be greatly appreciated.

AllyPally

Where is the final being played?

gargamel

Berlin

AAFrequentFlyer

Just saw this and since I've posted here before (AA), I decided to say hello. I'm going to Portugal next June for the European Championships and believe me, the prices quoted by some above are not even in the same state, forget the neighborhood.
I was lucky enough to get ticket through the official organizing commitee for the 1/4(2 games) 1/2(1 game) and final. The total cost of cat.1 tickets is 700 Euros. That's just 1 ticket for 4 games. I'm still working on the hotels, but it looks to be around $200 for a 3* for a single x 12 nights = $2400. Fortunately I have miles to fly first class, so that's free. But since we are doing a budget let's say it would cost me around $750 for coach. I figure another $150 per day(food, transportation, souvenirs, etc...etc...) so another $1800.
So, the total is somewhere around $6000 for 12 days with tickets to 4 games, although I'll admit, they are the final games and the tickets are the most expensive ones, but at the same time I did not have to pay premium to a scalper. And that's just for 1 person.
So, whoever wants to see the World Cup in Germany in 2006, , myself included, better start saving some pennies.